I was trying to think of something that could be called "Magical Realism", and that wasn't written by an author from a "underdeveloped" country, nor was about an "underdeveloped" environment, and then I remembered "The Witches of Eastwick", by John Updike, a novel about which I had very low expectations, but that turned out very enjoyable, and indeed it's one I might re-read some day. I guess by any standard, it's Magical Realism, but it's still a novel situated in the margins of society, in a remote and fictional town, and it deals with three women who "don't belong" to their environment: early 70īs divorcees, sexually active, forced to make a living and raise a family by themselves, that is, "witches". Can you think of any other novel like this one?

--Previous Message-- : Character development: you are absolutely right, : Sterling, and I think I said so before: characters : don't need to be "likable", but they have to : be well-developed. Now, what exactly does that mean? : Aha, therein lies the magic of it all. You have to buy : it, to want to go on reading about them even if they : are despicable. Can you think of a character that is a : "boring" person, but interesting as such? : I'm wondering... : : --Previous Message-- : I have lamented : that modern Latin American literature came to be : identified in some quarters only with magical realism, : i.e. books by Latin American authors that couldn't be : categorized as such tended to be ignored or : underestimated. : : : What an awful thought! Some Latin American authors : (Borges, Garcia Marquez, et al.) come up with an : excellent idea, which then turns into a straitjacket : for authors from 20 or so countries! : : : Plot / situation. Does the plot or the situation : depicted stimulate your mind? We know many works of : literary art need no plot, and then the way to present : a plotless situation becomes relevant. : : Yes, plot is tricky. Used in a narrow sense of a : "patterned" story, e.g., Tom Jones , few : modern novels have plots (although David Mitchell : does). However, it seems to me that a successful : novel must have narrative momentum of some kind. : Wittgenstein's Mistress, The Sense of an Ending, and : Omensetter's Luck certainly do not have traditional : plots, but they all have a compelling narrative. I : was unable to read The Slynx because I felt that it : has none. : : Character development. Do you care about the : characters and their fate? Do they ring a bell in your : psyche? Are they attractive as such? : : This one is debatable. Characters need to be : compelling in some way, but not necessarily likeable : or attractive. I didn't like anyone much in Sense of : an Ending , but I thought it was a good novel. I : didn't like the characters in The Sea , and I thought : it was an excellent novel (with a clever plot). I was : interested in the characters in both novels, and I : suppose I cared what happened to them, but without : liking them much. The ultimate example is probably : The Prague Cemetery . And yet, I have come across : books that affected me as The Bone People did both : Steven and Guillermo in which I didn't want to spend : any more time with the characters. It's hard to : explain, isn't it? : : : Isn't postmodernism in some ways a present day : substitute? Thinking of such works as Gravity's : Rainbow and Infinite Jest, we have the ridiculous and : the absurd taking the place of the magical and the : purely symbolic. : : Very interesting. I believe you're right. Pynchon, : DFW, John Barth, and company all feature unrealistic : events, situations, and so on, but they're not fantasy : or even magic realism. I wonder why not? : : : : : : :